I don’t have a network. I like to think I have friends.

People often like to talk about their friends as networks. Like they’re a beautifully and purposefully designed web, created to boost them and help them to level up.

I’ve never thought about the people I know like that. I don’t meet people to build a network with them, I don’t talk to people to get something from them, I don’t interact because I have an agenda. I just have a conversation, and if I like that conversation I make time to do it again.

There’s nothing strategic about it.

I like to think that if you’re friends with me today, it’s because of that.

I saw some asshole talking about how he built a network worth $50,000,000 in six months, and all I could think about was how little I wanted to know him as a person.

I tweeted this the other day…

Some of my friends sell software,
Some of my friends sell nudes

— Joan Westenberg 🌈 (@Jonwestenberg) May 22, 2019

It was partly a riff. But it was 100% true. Some of my friends are sex workers, some of my friends are developers. Some of my friends record rap mixtapes and design tattoos, and some of my friends run VC funds. Some of my friends play bass and sleep on my couch for a week at a time. Some of my friends could get me a job if I needed it, whether it was at their startup or at their record store. But all of my friends have the same equal value, because they are friends. That’s all I could ever ask.

Joany 🍕